Shorter days may be upon us, but Bellevue is enjoying a ray of brightness as Seattle Sun Tan celebrates the opening of a noninvasive cosmetic maintenance spa on Main Street.

The new concept is called Seattle Sun Light Spa. With services focused on light therapy, popular treatments include FDA-cleared red and blue light photofacials to reduce wrinkles and redness, even skin tone, and provide acne reduction; infrared saunas and wellness pods for relaxation, pain relief and immunity-boosting; LED body sculpting solutions; and LED-activated teeth whitening.

What is light therapy? According to Eli Kramer, a Brown University Medical School graduate and internist who extensively reviewed light-therapy research, the different lights have different mechanisms of action. Blue LED is absorbed by acne-causing bacteria, leading to their destruction, which heals acne blemishes and prevents future breakouts. Red LED penetrates deeper into the skin, where it is absorbed by cellular structures, leading to decreased inflammation, decreased sebum (oil) production, and increased collagen production. Infrared penetrates deepest below the skin surface, heating the body from the inside out, which stimulates mitochondrial energy metabolism, promotes healing, and decreases pain.

Light therapy was discovered in the late 1960s, and was then studied by NASA on plant growth. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first cosmetic light-therapy devices in 2005.

Though each person may experience different results, studies with red light therapy have demonstrated improved skin and decreased wrinkles in as few as eight sessions, with marked improvement after 30 sessions. Also, blue light therapy has been shown to start decreasing acne in as few as two sessions, with significant improvement after 12 sessions, according to Kramer.

In partnership with Skin Authority, Seattle Sun Light Spa also offers a collection of products customized per client and recommended before, during, and after treatment. An in-salon Skin Authority virtual aesthetician service communicates with the My Skin Authority app to allow for individual consultation with expert skin-care coaches.

“Our customers have been asking for a variety of cosmetic services and products. Now there’s such a broad range of innovative, clinically validated offerings that fit in our model, we’re really excited to share these with our existing customers and new customers who may not have thought of us as their first stop previously,” stated vice president of marketing Gabe Goldberg.

What the Lights Do

Red LED leads to a decrease in inflammation and oil production, and increased collagen production.